Question Sites Restricting downloads to members only.

[Sonic Angel Knight]

I was wondering, there some site forums i visit that restrict some downloads to members only, but this site does not. I was curious about why those sites require membership for downloads and some sites like this does not?

 

[hii915]

I was wondering, there some site forums i visit that restrict some downloads to members only, but this site does not. I was curious about why those sites require membership for downloads and some sites like this does not?

because they are money hungry

 

[Deleted member 370671]

There's not really anything to download on the temp, except maybe some homebrew. I'm pretty sure the websites you're talking about are piracy websites, and they often require membership to limit spam, and to prevent the download links end up on Google&co.

 

[Clydefrosch]

some websites restrict downloads to members to save server costs.
for some people, a few more mb of traffic might make a forum too expensive to run and keeping stuff members only is often enough of a hurdle for people to just go somewhere else.

 

[Deleted User]

because they are money hungry

How did you wind up at that conclusion? Being forced to join a website for its downloads doesn't always necessarily mean the owners will earn any cash out of it.
Unless I am missing something here? In that case, someone feel free to fill me in.

 

[FAST6191]

How did you wind up at that conclusion? Being forced to join a website for its downloads doesn't always necessarily mean the owners will earn any cash out of it.
Unless I am missing something here? In that case, someone feel free to fill me in.

It is part of what Clydefrosch said and if you are paying for more than a toy server you likely have bandwidth, be it total transfer or how fat your pipe is (my connection at home clocks some 60 megabits and you get a few of me having some fun...), to watch out for. Get yourself a direct link from slashdot or something and watch it go out of the door with no benefit to your members/community.

Other reasons include trying to get a few people to sign up and contribute -- they say echo chambers are bad but when the echo you hear is just your own voice then you are running a very poor blog for yourself. I am not sure how well forced sign ups work (every time I am forced to sign up for such a thing I tend to sneak a look at the member database, it is not good if you want to consider more than raw member numbers vs posts) but if you operate on a kind of spammer logic (my Nigerian prince just needs 1 sucker and all that) then maybe you get something from it, especially if you believe the downsides are minor "acceptable" nuisances (see also bank blocking my card and only thinking they are doing it to protect me, or basically everything the TSA does).

Some people might erroneously believe they are restricted to these too, or do it because they always did.

Now the websites that restrict any and all links to signed in users... those are not cool in most instances. Though those I can live with as they are mostly crap or have stuff I can find elsewhere or already know enough to bypass it, it is people saying [facebook link] and facebook then saying pack it up, pack it in sign up sign in that drives me nuts.

 

[Sonic Angel Knight]

I know i previously mentioned requiring membership for downloads but then there is also sites that requires membership to even make online purchases and orders of products. I just wanted to comment on that, and how i dislike those as well since i only want to buy one item and not need to setup so much just for something i may not consistenly use.

 

[FAST6191]

Guest accounts for checkouts is a different matter entirely. Unless you are selling something restricted there is little reason to not have guest checkout for things.

In most cases it seems to be legacy sites which have not been brought into the modern world that do not allow it. It is fine pushing sign in (even to the point of discounts, different pricing, free shipping or something).

 

[smf]

I was curious about why those sites require membership for downloads and some sites like this does not?

There are two possible reasons.

1. Some sites that host illegal content have put in the T&C that by signing up you confirm you are not a law enforcement agent, then they hope this means that any evidence gathered will be inadmissible. It doesn't help them.

2. Most of them try to use it to gain users, which is normally motivated by advertising revenue. Annoying potential users into giving you their personal details is unlikely to gain loyal users though, it's most likely to gain temporary throwaway email addresses.

If you just want to stop another site from posting links to your files then there are anti linking methods for that.

 

[Deleted User]

I'm part of a shitty warez site and the reason why I do it is because I like knowing that people are actually using the site. I mean, it might not be an accurate representation as to how many people are using it since some people might make new accounts because they forget their old username/password, but at least you know there are people actually using it.